The Oracle Solaris Cluster software provides data services for web and database applications. Data services are created by configuring off-the-shelf applications to run under control of the Oracle Solaris Cluster software. The Oracle Solaris Cluster software provides configuration files and management methods that start, stop, and monitor the applications. The Oracle Solaris Cluster software provides two kinds of highly available services for applications: failover services and scalable services. For more information, see Key Concepts – Application Development.
If you need to create a new failover or scalable service, you can use the Oracle Solaris Cluster Application Programming Interface (API) and the Data Service Enabling Technologies API (DSET API) to develop the necessary configuration files and management methods that enable its application to run as a data service on the cluster. For more information on failover and scalable applications, see Oracle Solaris Cluster System Administration Guide .
Application developers need to understand the following:
The characteristics of their application to determine whether it can be made to run as a failover or scalable data service.
The Oracle Solaris Cluster API, DSET API, and the “generic” data service. Developers need to determine which tool is most suitable for them to use to write programs or scripts to configure their application for the cluster environment.
In a failover application, an application runs on one node at a time. If that node fails, the application fails over to another node in the same cluster.
In a scalable application, an application runs on several nodes to create a single, logical service. If a node that is running a scalable application fails, failover does not occur. The application continues to run on the other nodes. For more information, see Failover Data Services and Scalable Data Services.
The following sections contain material relevant to the preceding key concepts:
The following Oracle Solaris Cluster document includes procedures and information associated with the application developer concepts:
Oracle Solaris Cluster Data Services Planning and Administration Guide